Greater Inventory Flexibility Through Contract Warehousing
Outsourcing is becoming a popular tool for running a business. Companies outsource many of the work formerly performed by internal departments. Some examples of the departments whose work is outsourced might be human resources and payroll, the IT department, and some manufacturing. There is one service that you might not immediately think of. This is your warehousing. On the West Coast, a Los Angeles Contract Warehouse can increase the efficiency of your company and can save you money. Whether you are in New York or Los Angeles 3PL (third-party logistics) is something you should consider.
One of the most obvious reasons to utilize a contract warehouse is that it gives you more flexibility. Even if your organization owns and runs its own warehouses, you may have some times of the year when you have extra inventory that you need to store. If you did not have a contract warehouse available to you, you would need to have excess warehouse space that would just sit empty for most of the year. The rule that time equals space equals money tells us that owning warehouse space that will spend time empty is wasteful of scarce resources. The logical conclusion is that you can see that the less space you own and the more you lease can increase your efficiency.
When you choose to lease contract warehouse space, you need to consider the characteristics and features of the space as you make your decision. While important in every location, in the Los Angeles area, an important characteristic to verify is that the warehouse is on stabilized ground. This characteristic is even more important if the inventory to be warehoused consists of oil field equipment or heavy equipment of other types. Other characteristics to look for are high ceilings to allow for high rack storage, a dry and well-insulated building to protect weather-vulnerable inventory, and a location that is close to a highway so that the transport truck can get the goods to their destination quickly.
The next area to consider after the physical building; is the warehouse personnel. In your own warehouse, you have the responsibility for training, managing, and paying the warehouse workers. By contrast, the staff and management of the contract warehouse have specialized training and only one goal, which is ensuring the proper storage of your goods. This leaves you and your company the capacity to concentrate on your core competencies.
A final consideration is your ability to keep in touch with your inventory. If you work with a progressive, high-tech warehouse, they will have a web-enabled tracking system. Using this system, you should be able to access your inventory information online so that, at any moment, you can check for yourself the quantities and locations of your inventory. This setup eliminates the chance that you will spend time on hold while someone else checks your information.
As you can see, third-party logistics is an important consideration in determining your storage solutions. The three areas that you need to investigate in making your selection is the suitability of the physical building, the reliability and knowledgability of the staff, and the convenience of online access.
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